sn't going to begin until
almost morning, they were all so excited that they couldn't wait for the
night to pass.

They lingered around the dooryard and talked so loudly that they
actually disturbed the household. Farmer Green was even tempted to get
up and shut his window, he found it so hard to go to sleep.

The noisiest of all the gathering was Mr. Frog, the tailor, who lived
over by the creek.

He had a great deal to say about everything; and it soon became plain to
everyone that he was trying to manage the whole affair.

Mr. Frog objected to every arrangement that Benjamin Bat had made. When
he learned that he was expected to enter a jumping contest with Kiddie
Katydid he exclaimed that he and Kiddie were such good friends that he
hated the thought of trying to beat Kiddie at jumping.

"Kiddie might feel bad," said Mr. Frog. "People might laugh at him
because I won."

"Don't you worry about me!" Kiddie Katydid called out.

"Where are you?" asked Mr. Frog, looking all around. "I can hear you,
but I can't see you."

But Kiddie Katydid refused to show himself.

He preferred, for the time being, to remain safely hidden among the
leaves, where he could listen to what people said--and talk to them when
he wanted to.

"Wouldn't you prefer some other sort of contest?" Mr. Frog then asked
him. "Now, there's swimming! We could swim in the watering-trough, or
the duck pond. And if I beat you, you could stick your head under water,
so you wouldn't hear what people said. Don't you think that's a good
idea?"

"Goodness, no!" cried Kiddie. "I'd drown myself in no time."

"Dear me!" said Mr. Frog. "I never thought of that."

And then everybody laughed so loudly at him that he hurried off to the
watering-trough to dive under water, and stay there until he was sure
that his remarks had been forgotten.

Meanwhile Benjamin Bat was worrying. He couldn't find anybody who was
willing to try the sport of hanging head downward by his heels. He asked
Kiddie Katydid; and Kiddie declined flatly to do any such thing.

Now, since Benjamin had not yet dined, he was very short-tempered. And
he grew angry at once.

"What's the matter?" he sneered. "Don't you know how to do an easy trick
like that? If I could see you--" he declared, peering among the maple
leaves--"if I could see you I'd show you how it feels to hang beneath a
limb."

Kiddie Katydid said no word in reply. He knew well enough what Benjamin
Bat meant. Benjamin